The 2021

Four Continents Figure Skating Championships The Four Continents Figure Skating Championships are an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union (ISU). Medals are awarded in men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dance. The ISU e ...

were scheduled to be held from February 9–14, 2021 in

Sydney, Australia Sydney is the capital city of the state of New South Wales and the most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about 80 km (50 mi) from the Pacific Ocean ...

. Held annually since 1999, the competition would have featured skaters from the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Oceania. Medals would have awarded in the disciplines of men's singles, ladies' singles,

pair skating Pair skating is a figure skating discipline defined by the International Skating Union (ISU) as "the skating of two persons in unison who perform their movements in such harmony with each other as to give the impression of genuine Pair Skating ...

, and

ice dance Ice dance (sometimes referred to as ice dancing) is a discipline of figure skating that historically draws from ballroom dancing. It joined the World Figure Skating Championships in 1952, and became a Winter Olympic Games medal sport in 1976. Ac ...

. Sydney was announced as the host in June 2019. Following the cancellation of the event on October 16, 2020, the

International Skating Union The International Skating Union (ISU) is the international sport governing body, governing body for competitive ice skating disciplines, including figure skating, synchronized skating, speed skating, and short track speed skating. It was founded ...

provisionally awarded Sydney the right to host the 2023 edition of the event. This would have been

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

's first time hosting the Four Continents, having last held an ISU Championship event in

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

The Australian government closed the country's borders to non-citizens in March 2020 to prevent the spread of the

pandemic A pandemic ( ) is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has a sudden increase in cases and spreads across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. Widespread endemic (epi ...

and, as of the event's cancellation date, had not yet reopened them. In August 2020, Australia's flagship airline

Qantas Qantas ( ), formally Qantas Airways Limited, is the flag carrier of Australia, and the largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations in Australia and List of largest airlines in Oceania, Oceania. A foundi ...

announced the suspension of all international flights through at least July 2021, making it unlikely for athletes to be able to travel to the competition if it were to be held. On October 14, 2020, two days before the event's official cancellation, Ice Skating Australia announced the suspension of all ticket sales until further notice. The ISU and various host federations had already cancelled several events earlier in the season, including the

2020–21 ISU Junior Grand Prix The 2020–21 ISU Junior Grand Prix would have been a series of junior international competitions organized by the International Skating Union to be held from August 2020 through December 2020. It would have been the junior-level complement to the ...

, several

2020–21 ISU Challenger Series The 2020–21 ISU Challenger Series was scheduled to be held from September 9 to December 5, 2020. It was the seventh season that the ISU Challenger Series, a group of senior-level international figure skating competitions, was held. Originally m ...

events, and the 2020 Skate Canada International.

Qualification

Age and minimum TES requirements

The competition was to be open to skaters from all non-European member nations of the

. The corresponding competition for European skaters was scheduled to be the 2021 European Championships, before it was cancelled in December 2020. Skaters would have been eligible for the 2021 Four Continents Championships if they turned 15 years of age before July 1, 2020 and met the minimum technical elements score requirements. The ISU accepts scores if they were obtained at senior-level ISU-recognized international competitions at least 21 days before the first official practice day of the championships.

Entries

Member nations had yet to announce their selections at the time of cancellation.

References

External links

2021 Four Continents Championships
at the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Four 2021 in figure skating 2021 in Australian sport February 2021 sports events in Australia Figure skating events cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic International sports competitions hosted at Sydney Olympic Park